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SOCCER; The Sports Bra Seen Round the World

Four years later, the world's most famous sports bra has not been sold on eBay, auctioned for charity or donated to the soccer hall of fame. It sits in a drawer in Brandi Chastain's house, just another functional piece of athletic equipment.

''When the laundry gets low, I wear it,'' Chastain said in a recent interview over lunch at her home. ''It still works, you know. It's not a one-time deal.''

On July 10, 1999, she scored the decisive penalty kick against China to give the United States a victory in the final of the Women's World Cup -- the culmination of the largest sporting event held for women. With 90,185 watching at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., and another 40 million Americans viewing on television, Chastain removed her jersey and dropped to her knees in exultant triumph.

''It was a crowning moment for women everywhere, a moment of freedom, of liberation,'' said Marlene Bjornsrud, general manager of the San Jose CyberRays, the team Chastain plays for in the Women's United Soccer Association. ''It was casting off the burden of everything that kept us down and said, 'You can't do that because you are a woman.' It was a moment that screamed, 'Yes, I can.' ''

With another Women's World Cup to be played in the United States, Sept. 20 through Oct. 12, and with Chastain still a starting defender on the national team as she nears 35, her celebration continues to resonate.

Her jubilant response became a sort of Rorschach test. Some saw ecstatic release. Some saw power in the swell of her biceps and the striation of her abdominal muscles. Some saw the black sports bra and a moment of titillation. Some saw a marketing conspiracy with Nike.

''My husband said, 'What a great, sexy body,' '' said Hinda Miller, now a state senator from Vermont who, as a costume designer in 1977, invented the sports bra with a partner, fashioning a prototype from a pair of athletic supporters. ''I saw the exuberance of being right out there, confident and joyous and totally committed and not ashamed of your body, a body of strength and athleticism: 'This is me. Accept me for who I am.' ''

A kneeling, overjoyed Chastain, seven feet high and four feet wide, serves as the title panel of a touring exhibition of photographs from Jane Gottesman's book ''Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like?''

No photograph of a female athlete in rapturous achievement is as compelling or as well-known as that of Chastain, said Geoffrey Biddle, the editor of ''Game Face'' and a co-curator of the exhibition, which can be seen now at the Chicago Historical Society and which will remain on tour through 2006.

Sue Levin, the chief executive of lucy activewear, inc., said the euphoria on Chastain's face and the power in her muscles projected a far stronger image for female athletes than figure skaters in their frilly dresses or a gymnast like Kerri Strug, who was injured, crying, seemingly helpless, as she was carried in the arms of her coach, Bela Karolyi, after securing a team gold medal for the United States at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

''This is a wild-woman image,'' Levin said of Chastain. ''She's a self-actualized woman who just conquered the world.''

It seems unlikely that Chastain was attempting to promote a bra in the unleashed moment after winning the World Cup. She did -- and still does -- have an apparel contract with Nike, but she plays defense and was not expected to score a goal.

No one could have known that she would take the deciding penalty kick. Because she was sweating profusely, Chastain changed her bra at halftime, and the one she chose for the second half bore a tiny Nike swoosh logo that would have been a poor choice for marketing purposes.

A rabid soccer fan, Chastain performed a familiar ritual -- now prohibited for men and women -- by removing her jersey, because in a sport where goals are rare, they demand an exorbitant response. Sissi of Brazil and Linda Medalen of Norway had lifted their jerseys above their heads in previous games during the tournament.

Gottesman said she chose a photograph of Chastain for the cover of her book and as the centerpiece of her photo exhibition for reasons of defiance as much as for celebration.

Women are too often talked about because of their looks rather than their achievements, and their actions are not accepted simply for what they are, Gottesman said, referring to the suggestions that Chastain's celebration was about sex and marketing.

''People seemed so eager to rip this moment down; there was almost a kind of resentment that women's sports had busted through,'' Gottesman said. ''We wanted to reclaim the moment as being as clear and visceral as it was.''

''When she ripped off her shirt and said it was acceptable, she changed the rules,'' Cohen, senior retail analyst for the NPD Group, a market research firm, said.

Missy Park, founder of Title 9 Sports, an apparel company, said that for the next fashion season, sports bras accounted for nearly half her company's sales, up from the usual 25 or 26 percent, an escalation ''that never happened in a category like that before or since.''

Sitting in her kitchen, examining the familiar photograph of her celebration, Chastain recalled her jumble of emotions. The moment's meaning has evolved for her. Both her parents have died unexpectedly in the last 10 months, and she tries to appreciate the small moments as well as the large ones.

''It was just a 'Yes!' '' Chastain said. ''Twenty-something years of playing the game and this is the most perfect moment. Sitting in the stands, it was that emotion times 100.''

Everywhere she goes, someone asks her to remove her jersey. When the national team played in Salt Lake City on June 14, a man wore a bra and asked Chastain to sign it. Chastain, a blithe spirit nicknamed Hollywood, who has always handled these moments graciously, signed it. ''It never makes me mad,'' Chastain said. ''And I always try to direct it back to soccer: 'We have a game coming up. Get to the stadium.' ''

Only once did she receive a letter criticizing her for ''ruining a perfect moment,'' Chastain said.

However, one of her teachers at Cal, the sports sociologist Harry Edwards, has said that the awarding of a bra endorsement to Chastain represented a subjugation of women in their traditional roles. It was the equivalent, Edwards said, of giving Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa ''the jockstrap endorsement.''

Chastain said she took offense at that, asking what was wrong with endorsing a piece of athletic equipment. She noted that Jim Palmer, the former pitcher, once endorsed underwear, and that male athletes took their shirts off all the time without provoking criticism.

And although she signed various product endorsements worth a reported $2 million after the World Cup, Chastain said she was not in the same league at Nike as LeBron James, the basketball phenomenon who signed a $90 million endorsement deal, or Freddy Adu, the 13-year-old soccer player who signed a deal reported to be worth $1 million.

''Women always have to prove themselves before they're acknowledged,'' Chastain said. ''For men it's like: 'You're hyped up, so you must be worth something. We're going to pay you before someone else gets you.' It works different for women. And if something happens, there has to be an ulterior motive.''

Mary Jo Kane, a sports sociologist at the University of Minnesota, said she had been concerned not so much about Chastain's celebration, but that the public discourse would focus more on sports bras than on sports, less on the hearts and minds of the World Cup champions than on their undergarments. ''My fear was realized,'' she said.

Some feminists were troubled by another photograph, one that appeared before the World Cup in Gear magazine, with Chastain wearing nothing but a strategically placed soccer ball.

She had worked hard for her sculpted body and was proud of it, Chastain said.

Some American track and field stars later appeared nude or seminude in calendars. They belonged to a generation of female athletes, Chastain said, who believed that sexuality was an acceptable way to attract fans, who would later come to appreciate their skills.

''I don't care about the vehicle, as long as it stops at the stadium,'' Chastain said. ''You'll be impressed by the athletes you see.''

Kane said she did not believe that the sexualization of female athletes increased either their fan base or the appreciation of their athletic competence. Chastain said she could be responsible only for her own actions.

''Anything I do should not be evaluated as representing all women,'' she said. ''I can only represent myself. If I have the best intentions not to harm anybody, not to get in the way of anyone else's success or enjoyment, I can't be held accountable for how other people see it or feel it.''